Axe factory in Lambay Island

Excavations in a valley running NW-SE beside an upland area on Lambay Island revealed an axe working area that started around 3800BC. All stages of axe production were represented. The associated tools were also present inluding large cobbles of conglomerate and granite to break off the outcrop and hammerstones used in roughing out the axes. Finds include porphyry debitage, struck flints, hamerstones, rubbers and Neolithic pottery (Cooney 1998.57-9; 1993, 28). The Eagle's Nest is the first quarry site recognised in ireland or Britain where hammering and pecking was the primary technology (Cooney 2009, 13). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Date of upload: 26 August 2011